Pleasanton Weekly

Four charged in Pleasanton home invasion holdup

Arrests stem from August robbery of casino winner at his Pleasanton home

by Glenn Wohltmann

A lucky break led to the arrest of four men in the August armed home invasion robbery of a man who returned to his Pleasanton home with a bag of cash he won at a Bay Area casino.

That break? One of the men charged in the case allegedly dropped his cell phone at the scene of the armed robbery that netted more than $40,000.

Police received a 911 call at about 12:37 p.m. Aug. 26 from a resident of Roselma Place, off upper Bernal Avenue. The woman told police she and her husband had been robbed at gunpoint about five minutes earlier.

According to court documents, the four followed the victim to his home after watching him win more than $65,000 at the casino. Police have asked that the casino not be named.

When the winner's wife returned home from an errand, she was approached by three men in red sweatshirts. Two of the three were wearing bandannas over their faces.

"The suspect without a bandanna put a gun to (the woman's) head," court documents say.

The two victims were forced at gunpoint to various rooms of the home, and the men took cash and fled through the garage. One of the men dropped his phone when they fled. That phone was reportedly traced to Jakari Bolden, 24, of Oakland.

Local police, working with other agencies and SWAT teams, arrested Bolden and two others on Oct. 24, according to Pleasanton police Lt. Jeff Bretzing.

"A large-scale operation was carried out during which three search and arrest warrants were served in the city of Oakland and a fourth in the city of Hercules," Bretzing said. "SWAT teams from Oakland Police and Fremont Police, along with the East County Tactical Team, were deployed to assist detectives and agents at the four separate residences."

Bolden, Terrell Bailey, 25, of Oakland, and Thomas Stokes, 30, of Hercules were arrested without incident.

A fourth suspect, Myrick Rucker, 30, of Antioch was taken into custody without incident Nov. 6 by the East County Tactical Team, which worked with Antioch Police, Pleasanton police detectives and agents from the California Department of Justice Bureau of Gambling Control.

"We did recover some firearms. Two handguns and a rifle were recovered," Bretzing said. "We did not recover a significant amount of cash."

The four men were booked into the Santa Rita Jail on robbery charges and are each being held on $400,000 bond.

Stokes was also charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, but no information about any prior conviction was available. Bolden has prior convictions for illegal possession of an assault weapon and drug sales. Bailey also has a prior drug-sale conviction.

Bretzing said working with a SWAT team is routine when it comes to arresting suspects who may be armed.

"The Fremont and Oakland SWAT teams were instrumental in the operation, as were the members of the Livermore and Pleasanton police departments who make up the East County Tactical Team," he said.